New Delhi: In Hedgewar: A Definitive Biography, self-described philosopher and “seasoned strategist” Sachin Nandha, who was up until recently a private equity executive, compares the RSS founder to a dizzying range of people. This includes, but is not limited to, Karl Marx, Gandhi, Jesus, and Shashi Tharoor.
“He was absorbing global data. Steeped in the Indian civilisational ethos, but also equally influenced by enlightenment. He rejected Nietzsche and Marx, but was nonetheless influenced by them,” said Nandha. “His english was of the elitist kind. The global RSS movement was created with syncretism.”
At the release of the book, Hedgewar: A Definitive Biography, held at Delhi’s India Habitat Centre on Monday, Nandha was accompanied by IGNCA Member Secretary Sachchidanand Joshi and the editor of RSS mouthpiece Organiser, Prafulla Ketkar. Both of them are third-generation doctrinaires, and thus have immoveable takes on the role and identity of Keshav Baliram Hedgewar.
Despite admitting to only having skimmed through the book, they weren’t exactly on board with all that was written, and found the book to be limited in scope.
Ketkar spoke about the other organisations that sprung from the RSS, such as the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the labour wing of the Sangh.
“BMS was conceptually born in 1925, but unfolded in 1950. By trying to locate him (Hedgewar) in comparison to other personalities around him, the book misses out the unfolding of RSS as a thought process,” Ketkar said.
Joshi also found fault with the book, but issued a disclaimer—he had only read the postscript. Among other things, he pointed out Nandha’s failure to refer to the RSS’ longest-serving sarsanghchalak, MS Golwalkar, as guru ji.
“It is difficult for RSS people to defend this book. And a few things are going to create waves,” said Joshi. “People close to him (Golwalkar) would say Guru ji. So would the strongest of opponents. I’m surprised that the pretext was not used.”
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‘The Hedgewarian mind’
Hedgewar was not building an institution or a movement, but wanted a society that was organised on ideological lines. The RSS turns 100 this year, but this is a marker that would’ve been futile to its founder.
“The ultimate aim is for the entire society to belong to swayamsevaks. There are swayamsevaks, and there are people who will become swayamsevaks,” said Joshi.
Nandha is a member of the Indian diaspora in the UK, and has never lived in India. However, he spent eight years researching the book, and also spent time at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, where their private archives are located. This is a book that’s targeted at a Western audience, and the “seasoned strategist” also critiqued the present dossier of material available on the RSS in English.
“In order to understand the phenomena, you need a new idiom. Indians have tried to express philosophical thoughts in an English that doesn’t do it justice,” the author said. “It’s not just about the RSS but about the Hedgewarian mind. I’m not interested in modern-day politicking.”
The audience, which appeared to consist mostly of RSS affiliates or those who sympathised with the ideology, were interested in delving deeper into Hedgewar. However, one ex-Indian foreign service officer criticised Nandha for neglecting the “colonial construct.”
At one point, Nandha also said that Indian conversations on the RSS are “linguistically unhygienic”, and derided the use of “clunky phrases.”
The discussion ultimately returned to Joshi who made things clear: “You’ll have a tough time ahead because there are people who know the RSS and India much better than you,” he said.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)
First priority of RSS should be a total country for Hindus like 57 Muslim countries and above hundred Christian countries, even after two religious base partitions still Hindus not got a country,two Anti Hindu Muslim crooks sabotaged religious base partition,so RSS should concentrate to declare hindustan as Hindu rashtra as per religious base partition, hindustan for Hindus pakistan for Muslims,please work for the legitimate grievance, right of Hindus,a country for 125 cr Hindus. else Hindus forced to go for a civil war to liberate Hindu country from Anti Hindus.jai Hindu unity Jai Hindus Jai shree ram.